Madagascar

Madagascar

(măd'əgăs`cär), officially Republic of Madagascar, republic (2015 est. pop. 24,234,000), 226,658 sq mi (587,045 sq km), in the Indian Ocean, separated from E Africa by the Mozambique Channel. Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island. The country also claims several small islands including the French possessions of Juan de Nova IslandJuan de Nova Island, 1.7 sq mi (4.4 sq km), in the Mozambique Channel, Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and Mozambique; a possession of France administered by a high commissioner in Réunion. Low and flat, the island is surrounded by coral reefs......Click the link for more information., Europa IslandEuropa Island, volcanic island, c.11 sq mi (28 sq km), between Madagascar and Mozambique in the Mozambique Channel, W Indian Ocean. A possession of France since 1897, Europa is flat, low-lying, and heavily wooded......Click the link for more information., the Glorioso IslandsGlorioso Islands, Fr. Îles Glorieuses, island group, c.2 sq mi (5 sq km), in the Mozambique Channel, W Indian Ocean, 125 mi (200 km) WNW of N Madagascar. A French possession since 1892, they are comprised of two small vegetation-covered coral islands, Île.....Click the link for more information., Tromelin IslandTromelin Island, c.1 sq mi (2.6 sq km), in the Indian Ocean c.260 mi (420 km) E of Madagascar. A French possession administered from Réunion, the low, flat, sandy island is the site of a meteorological station important in forecasting Indian Ocean cyclones......Click the link for more information., and Bassas da IndiaBassas da India, uninhabited atoll, 0.1 sq mi (0.2 sq km), in the S Mozambique Channel, W Indian Ocean, about midway between Madagascar and Mozambique. The atoll's rocky islets, which emerge from a circular reef, sometimes present a maritime hazard since they are normally under.....Click the link for more information.. The capital and largest city is AntananarivoAntananarivoor Tananarive, city (1993 pop. 675,669), capital of Madagascar. Antananarivo is Madagascar's largest city and is its administrative, communications, and economic center. It is the trade center for a productive agricultural region, whose main crop is rice......Click the link for more information..

Land and People

Madagascar is made up of a highland plateau fringed by a lowland coastal strip, narrow (c.30 mi/50 km) in the east and considerably wider (c.60–125 mi/100–200 km) in the west. The plateau attains greater heights in the north, where Mt. Maromokotro (9,450 ft/2,880 m), the loftiest point in the country, is located, and in the center, where the Ankaratra Mts. reach c.8,670 ft (2,640 m). Once a mosaic of forest, brush, and grassland, the plateau is now largely deforested. A national park was established in 1997 to protect the island's lemurslemur, name for prosimians, or lower primates, of two related families, found only on Madagascar and adjacent islands. Lemurs have monkeylike bodies and limbs, and most have bushy tails about as long as the body. They have pointed muzzles and large eyes......Click the link for more information., rare orchids, and other unique wild species, products of the island's 80-million-year isolation from the mainland. Some three fourths of the island's plant and animal species are found only on Madagascar. A series of lagoons along much of the east coast is connected in part by the Pangalanes Canal, which runs (c.400 mi/640 km) between Farafangana and Mahavelona and can accommodate small boats. The island has several rivers, including the Sofia, Betsiboka, Manambao, Mangoro, Tsiribihina, Mangoky, Mananara, and Onilahy. In addition to the capital, other cities include Antsirabe, AntsirananaAntsiranana, formerly Diégo-Suarez, town (1993 pop. 45,967), N Madagascar, on Antsiranana Bay. The bay, an arm of the Indian Ocean, is one of the world's finest natural harbors; its location, however, has hindered its development as a major port......Click the link for more information., FianarantsoaFianarantsoa, town (1993 pop. 99,005), S central Madagascar, in the central highlands. It is the chief commercial center of a fertile agricultural region producing rice, coffee, potatoes, tobacco, and wine. Food processing is the town's chief industry......Click the link for more information., MahajangaMahajanga, formerly Majunga, city (1993 pop. 100,807), NW Madagascar, on the Mozambique Channel. Despite its shallow harbor, Mahajanga is one of the nation's chief ports. The Betsiboka River valley provides access to the interior......Click the link for more information., ToamasinaToamasina, formerly Tamatave, city (1993 pop. 127,441), NE Madagascar. Situated on the Indian Ocean, it is the nation's chief port and is connected by rail with Antananarivo. Toamasina exports sugar, coffee, cloves, and rice. Food processing is the chief industry......Click the link for more information., and Toliary.

The inhabitants of Madagascar fall into two main groups—those largely of Malayo-Indonesian descent and those principally of African descent. Of the roughly 18 ethnicities, the main Indonesian groups are the Merina, who live near Antananarivo, and the Bétsiléo, who live around Fianarantsoa. The principal African groups are the Betsimisáraka, who live near Toamasina; the Tsimihety, based in the N highlands; the Sakalawa and the Antandroy, who live in the west; and the Antaisaka, who live in the southeast. There are small numbers of French and South Asians. All the people speak Malagasy, a language of Indonesian origin; it, French, and English are official languages. Over 50% of the people follow traditional religious beliefs; about 40% are Christian (equally divided between Roman Catholics and Protestants), and 7% are Muslim.

Economy

The economy of Madagascar is overwhelmingly agricultural, largely of a subsistence type; the best farmland is in the east and northwest. The principal cash crops are coffee, vanilla, sugarcane, cloves, and cocoa. The main food crops are rice, cassava, beans, bananas, and peanuts. In addition, large numbers of poultry, cattle, goats, sheep, and hogs are raised. Fishing and forestry are also important.

Industries include meat, seafood, and sugar processing; brewing; tanning; automobile assembly; and the manufacture of textiles, glassware, and paper. Tourism is also important. The chief minerals are chromite, graphite, coal, bauxite, salt, quartz, zircon, ilmenite, nickel, cobalt, industrial beryl and garnets, sapphires, and both offshore and onshore oil. There is an extensive but degraded road system (now being repaired) and only a limited rail network. Toamasina and Mahajanga are the chief ports.

Madagascar carries on a relatively small foreign trade, and the annual value of imports is usually higher than the value of exports. The main imports are capital and consumer goods, petroleum, and food products. The leading exports are coffee, vanilla, shellfish, sugar, textiles, chromite, and petroleum products. The principal trade partners are France, the United States, and China. Madagascar relies heavily upon assistance from members of the European Union and international agencies.

Government

Madagascar is governed under the constitution of 2010. The president, who is head of state, is elected by popular vote for a five-year term and is eligible for a second term. The government is headed by a prime minister, who is appointed by the president. There is a bicameral legislature, consisting of a Senate and National Assembly. Two thirds of the senators are selected by regional assemblies; the rest are appointed by the president. National Assembly deputies are popularly elected. All legislators serve five-year terms. Administratively, Madagascar is divided into 22 regions.

History

Early History to the End of Native Monarchy

The earliest history of Madagascar is unclear. Africans and Indonesians reached the island in about the 5th cent. A.D., the Indonesian immigration continuing until the 15th cent. From the 9th cent., Muslim traders (including some Arabs) from E Africa and the Comoro Islands settled in NW and SE Madagascar. Probably the first European to see Madagascar was Diogo Dias, a Portuguese navigator, in 1500. Between 1600 and 1619, Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries tried unsuccessfully to convert the Malagasy. From 1642 until the late 18th cent. the French maintained footholds, first at Taolagnaro (formerly Fort-Dauphin) in the southeast and finally on Sainte Marie Island off the east coast.

By the beginning of the 17th cent. there were a number of small Malagasy kingdoms, including those of the Antemoro, Antaisaka, Bétsiléo, and Merina. Later in the century the Sakalawa under Andriandahifotsi conquered W and N Madagascar, but the kingdom disintegrated in the 18th cent. At the end of the 18th cent. the Merina people of the interior were united under King Andrianampoinimerina (reigned 1787–1810), who also subjugated the Bétsiléo. Radama IRadama I, c.1793–1828, founder of the kingdom of Madagascar. He succeeded (1810) his father, Andrianimpoinimerina, as king of Merina, a small kingdom on the central plateau of the island......Click the link for more information. (reigned 1810–28), in return for agreeing to end the slave trade, received British aid in modernizing and equipping his army, which helped him to conquer the Betsimisáraka kingdom. The Protestant London Missionary Society was welcomed, and it gained many converts, opened schools, and helped to transcribe the Merina language. Merina culture began to spread over Madagascar.

Radama was succeeded by his wife Ranavalona I (reigned 1828–1861), who, suspicious of foreigners, declared (1835) Christianity illegal and halted most foreign trade. During her rule the Merina kingdom was wracked by intermittent civil war. Under Radama II (reigned 1861–63) and his widow and successor Rasoherina (reigned 1863–68) the anti-European policy was reversed and missionaries (including Roman Catholics) and traders were welcomed again. Rainilaiarivony, the prime minister, controlled the government during the reigns of Ranavalona II (1868–83) and Ranavalona III (1883–96); by then the Merina kingdom included all Madagascar except the south and part of the west. Ranavalona II publicly recognized Christianity, and she and her husband were baptized.

In 1883 the French bombarded and occupied Toamsina (then Tamatave), and in 1885 they established a protectorate over Madagascar, which was recognized by Great Britain in 1890. Rainilaiarivony organized resistance to the French, and there was heavy fighting from 1894 to 1896. In 1896, French troops under J. S. Gallieni defeated the Merina and abolished the monarchy.

Colonialism, Independence, and One-Man Rule

By 1904 the French fully controlled the island. Under the French, who governed the Malagasy through a divide-and-rule policy, development was concentrated in the Tananarive region, and thus the Merina benefited most from colonial rule. Merina nationalism developed early in the 20th cent., and in 1916 (during World War I) a Merina secret society was suppressed by the French after a plot against the colonialists was discovered.

During World War II, Madagascar was aligned with Vichy France until 1942, when it was conquered by the British; in 1943 the Free French regime assumed control. From 1947 to 1948 there was a major uprising against the French, who crushed the rebellion, killing between 11,000 and 80,000 (estimates vary) Malagasy in the process. As in other French colonies, indigenous political activity increased in 1956, and the Social Democratic party (PSD), led by Philibert Tsiranana (a Tsimihety), gained predominance in Madagascar.

On Oct. 14, 1958, the country—renamed the Malagasy Republic—became autonomous within the French CommunityFrench Community,established in 1958 by the constitution of the Fifth French Republic to replace the French Union. Its members consisted of the French Republic, which included metropolitan France (continental France, Corsica, Algeria and the Sahara), the overseas territories.....Click the link for more information. and Tsiranana was elected president. On June 26, 1960, it became fully independent. Under Tsiranana (reelected in 1965 and 1972), an autocratic ruler whose PSD controlled parliament, government was centralized, the coastal peoples (côtiers) were favored over those of the interior (especially the Merina), and French economic and cultural influence remained strong. Beginning in 1967, Tsiranana cultivated economic relations with white-ruled South Africa.

In 1972, students and workers, discontented with the president's policies and with the deteriorating economic situation, staged a wave of protest demonstrations. At the height of the crisis Tsiranana handed over power to Gen. Gabriel Ramanantsoa, who became prime minister. In Oct., 1972, a national referendum overwhelmingly approved Ramanantsoa's plan to rule without parliament for five years; Tsiranana, who opposed the plan, resigned the presidency shortly after the vote.

The New Madagascar

Ramanantsoa freed political prisoners jailed by Tsiranana, began to reduce French influence in the country, broke off relations with South Africa, and generally followed a moderately leftist course. In 1975, a new constitution was approved that renamed the Malagasy Republic the Democratic Republic of Madagascar. That same year, Ramanantsoa dissolved his government in response to mounting unrest in the military and internal disagreements regarding economic policy. Col. Ratsimandrava assumed power but was assassinated a month later and Lt. Comdr. Didier Ratsiraka was elected president in a referendum.

The military-backed Supreme Revolutionary Council (CSR), with Ratsiraka as its head, comprised the government's executive branch. Ratsiraka's Marxist-socialist government nationalized most of the economy and borrowed widely to pay for major investments in development. The nation fell into a crippling debt crisis. Ratsiraka's policies of censorship, regional divisiveness, and repression led to several coup attempts in the 1980s, while food shortages and price increases caused further social unrest. In foreign affairs, Madagascar under Ratsiraka strengthened ties with the United States and Europe and continued to distance itself from South Africa.

Ratsiraka was reelected in 1989 under suspicious circumstances and rioting ensued. Madagascar's political and economic upheaval prompted the government to establish a multiparty system and move toward the privatization of industry in the 1990s. After demonstrations and a lengthy general strike in 1991, Ratsiraka agreed to share power with opposition leader Albert Zafy in a transitional government. In a free presidential election held in 1993, Zafy overwhelmingly defeated Ratsiraka.

In 1995, Zafy won passage of a constitutional amendment allowing the president, rather than the national assembly, to choose a prime minister. With the economy deteriorating, protesters staged street demonstrations in Feb., 1996, and there were some calls for an army takeover. Dissatisfaction with Zafy led to his impeachment by the national assembly in July, 1996. In elections later that year, Ratsiraka came back to defeat Zafy, promising a program of humanistic and ecological development; he also announced plans for a referendum to revise the constitution. Elections in 1998 sent 63 members of Ratsiraka's AREMA party into the newly enlarged national assembly.

In the Dec., 2001 presidential elections, opposition leader Marc RavalomananaRavalomanana, Marc, 1949–, Malagasy political leader. He made a fortune manufacturing dairy products and began his political career in 1999 when he was elected mayor of Antananarivo. In 2001 he challenged incumbent Didier Ratsiraka for the country's presidency......Click the link for more information. claimed victory over Ratsiraka, but the government announced that he had won only 46% of the vote, forcing a runoff. Ravalomanana denounced reported results and proclaimed himself president, creating a standoff between his and Ratsiraka's supporters. Although Ravalomanana gained control of the capital, Ratsiraka moved his government to Toamasina and had strong support outside the capital and in much of the army.

A recount in Apr., 2002, which was negotiated by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and agreed to by both candidates, declared Ravalomanana the winner, but Ratsiraka rejected those results. Forces supporting Ravalomanana gradually won control of most of the island (except Toamasina prov.) by early July, when Ratsiraka fled Madagascar. The African Union, the OAU's successor, initially refused to recognize the new government and called for new elections. In Dec., 2002, Ravalomanana's party won a majority in elections for a new legislature, and the African Union subsequently recognized the new government. Ratsiraka was tried in absentia and convicted on charges of embezzlement in 2003.

Ravalomanana moved to privatize state-owned companies and successfully sought international aid and foreign investment. His government, however, sometimes limited freedom of the press and other political freedoms. In 2005 the government banned the New Protestant Church (FPVM), a growing charismatic church that had split (2002) from the mainline Reformed Protestant Church of Jesus Christ (FJKM). The president, a lay leader in the FJKM, was accused of favoring one church over another in violation of the constitution, but the courts refused to overturn the decision.

The president was reelected in Dec., 2006, but the election was marred by the exclusion of a major opposition candidate, Pierrot Rajaonarivelo, who was in exile and was not allowed to return and register for the election. In addition, in November, there was an attempted coup against the president by a retired army general who was also not allowed to run; although it was unsuccessful, many of the presidential candidates called his a coup a move in defense of the constitution. In late 2006 and early 2007 Madagascar suffered its worst cyclone (hurricane) season in memory, with six storms hitting the country, affecting some 450,000 inhabitants. Legislative elections in Sept., 2007, again gave the president's party a majority of the seats.

In Dec., 2008, in a feud that was as much personal as it was political, Antananarivo mayor Andry RajoelinaRajoelina, Andry, 1974–, Malagasy businessman and politician. Rajoelina was a popular disc jockey and built a successful media conglomerate. Elected mayor of Antananarivo in 2007, he used his office as a platform for criticizing President Marc Ravalomanana, and after the.....Click the link for more information. began leading demonstrations demanding the president's resignation after Rajoelina's television station was briefly closed by the government. The protests, which tapped into popular discontent, led to street violence in late January and early February; also in early February Ravalomanana dismissed the mayor from office. Talks failed to resolve the conflict, and in March a military mutiny forced the president to resign; he went into exile. The new army chief handed the presidency to Rajoelina (though he was constitutionally too young for the office) in a de facto coup; Ravalomanana's ouster was denounced by the African Union, which suspended Madagascar. Ravalomanana's supporters, who mounted demonstrations in his favor, announced their own government in April; its prime minister, Manandafy Rakotonirina, was arrested.

Attempts by the United Nations and African Union to negotiate a settlement were initially unsuccessful, and in the June a Madagascar court sentenced the former president in absentia to four years in prison for abuse of office. In August, however, the four main political parties agreed to establish a transitional government leading to elections in 2010, but Rajoelina's move (September) to unilaterally appoint the government threatened the accord. In October, an agreement was reached concerning the government (with Rajoelina as president), but Ravalomanana refused to sign it because Rajoelina was not excluded from running for president.

Negotiations over the makeup of the government continued, but in December Rajoelina abandoned the negotiations, barred opposition leaders (including members of the power-sharing government) from returning to Madagascar, called for new parliamentary elections, and appointed a new prime minister. Subsequent attempts to restart negotiations and reestablish the power-sharing government failed, leading to a loss of foreign aid that contributed to deteriorating economic conditions. Dissatisfaction in the military with the situation led in 2010 to tensions between the military and the government and within the military. In Aug., 2010, Ravalomanana was convicted in absentia on murder charges arising the from killings of Rajoelina supporters by the presidential guard in Feb., 2009, and sentenced to life in prison. Also in August, Rajoelina signed an accord with 99 minor political parties that confirmed him as president and called for a constitutional referendum in November and legislative and presidential elections in 2011.

The new constitution was approved in Nov., 2010, but at the same time Rajoelina also faced an unsuccessful coup attempt by dissident army elements. In Nov., 2011, a new prime minister, Omer Beriziky, was appointed by consensus following a 10-party September agreement, brokered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), on restoring a democratic government. Also that month, former president Ratsiraka, who objected to the agreement, returned to the country after nine years of exile. When Ravalomanana attempted to return in Jan., 2012, however, Madagascar closed its airspace and denied him entry, leading to tensions in the recently formed government as the former president's party protested the action.

An agreement in Jan., 2012 called for a presidential election in May, 2013; Rajoelina and Ravalomanana both agreed not to run. Subsequently, Ravalomanana's wife became a candidate, and Rajoelina also entered the race. The election date was pushed back first to July and then to August; in the latter month the election commission disqualified Rajoelina, Lalao Ravalomanana, and Ratsiraka from running and rescheduled the election again, to October.

Richard Jean-Louis Robinson, a cabinet minister under Ravalomanana, and Hery Rajaonarimampianina, a cabinet minister under Rajoelina, placed first and second after the first round (October) of the presidential election, in what was generally seen as a proxy contest between Ravalomanana and Rajoelina. The second round, in Dec., 2013, resulted in a victory for Rajaonarimampianina, who received more that 53% of the vote, but Robinson accused the government of fraud and irregulaties and rejected the result. Prior to the second round, military officers had been named governors of a third of the country's regions. Ravalomanana returned to Madagascar in Oct., 2014, and was arrested, but his sentence was lifted and he was released in 2015. In May, 2015, the president was impeached by the legislature, dominated by supporters of Rajoelina and Ravalomanana, but the constitutional court overturned the vote.

In Apr., 2018, a new election law that supporters of Rajoelina and Ravalomanana denounced as favoring the incumbent president led to demonstrations against the law and the president. The law was declared partially unconstitutional in May, diffusing the crisis somewhat, and in June a new prime minister was appointed by consensus ahead of the fall presidential election. In September, in advance of the presidential election, Rajaonarimampianina resigned, and senate president Rivo Rakotovao became acting president.

In the implementation of this project, the focus will be on improving Madagascar's competitiveness in order to attract more private and public investment in job-creating sectors such as agro-industry and the improvement of the performance of state-owned companies: Madagascar's National Electricity and Water Company (JIRAMA) and Air Madagascar, allowing the State to reduce the subsidies and transfers it grants them.

The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the visit of President of the CONECT Tarak Cherif to Madagascar, where he had held talks on Thursday in Antananarivo (Capital) with President of Madagascar Hery Rajaonarimampianina on relations of economic cooperation and partnership between economic operators of both countries, according to CONECT.

Presenting the role of FDI in the Government of Madagascar's investment policy, Harison Randriarimanana, Economic Counsellor of the President of the Republic of Madagascar and Chairman of the Economic Development Board of Madagascar said that, "attracting FDI and building the appropriate legal framework are priorities for the Government.

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